Tyrod Taylor is ready to move on from one of the strangest NFL occurrences in recent memory. The veteran suffered a punctured lung at the hands of the Los Angeles Chargers team physician, who was attempting to administer pain medication for a rib injury ahead of the team's matchup with Kansas City Chiefs in Week 2. Taylor was then rushed to a hospital and thus began the Justin Herbert era with the Chargers, retaining the starting job permanently even after Taylor was medically cleared to return -- roughly one month after the accident. The NFLPA launched a probe into the matter and Taylor was mulling his options in regards to potentially filing a grievance, having now seemingly reached a decision.
The 31-year-old has reportedly declined to file a grievance against the Chargers for severely injuring him and costing him the starting job as a result, per Ian Rapoport of NFL Network, having been allowed 60 days to decide if he would. The NFLPA is still probing the matter, but only to ascertain prevention methods going forward.
Now in his second and final year of a two-year, $11 million deal signed with the Chargers in 2019, Taylor entered the 2020 season as the team's starter following the parting of ways with Philip Rivers this offseason. He managed to start the season opener despite the team using the sixth overall pick in the 2020 NFL Draft to select Herbert. Despite missing Week 2 with the punctured lung, head coach Anthony Lynn initially doubled down on Taylor as the starter when healthy, but Herbert changed that rather quickly.
Currently sitting at 3-8 on the season, Lynn himself might find he has no future with the club.
To his credit, Herbert played great football in the absence of Taylor, despite struggling to land his first NFL win, and then having to claw his way to his second. His four-touchdown performance in Week 5 against the New Orleans Saints was a rookie record for ESPN's "Monday Night Football," and the Chargers are now Herbert's team for the foreseeable future. Taylor is now relegated to the role of QB2, ahead of second-year talent Easton Stick. As for the future of Taylor in Los Angeles, it doesn't look promising between the two sides, but time will tell if he opts to remain with the team who cost him the very starting job they gave him by poking a hole in his lung, and if they'd want him to return -- the latter likely also contingent upon the development of Stick.
If the answer is no in either direction, the journeyman QB will be on the move yet again, looking for what will be his fifth NFL home since being selected in the sixth round of the NFL draft by the Baltimore Ravens in 2011.
